An estimated 4.5 trillion non-biodegradable cigarette butts are littered worldwide every year. That's billions of cigarettes flicked, one at a time, on our sidewalks, beaches, nature trails, gardens, and other public places every single day. In fact, cigarettes are the most littered item in America and the world. Not only does cigarette litter ruin even the most picturesque setting, but the toxic residue in cigarette filters is damaging to the environment, and littered butts cause numerous fires every year, some of them fatal.
One solution to the problem of cigarette litter is to have more public ashtrays available. However, this would shift the burden to the public organizations to place those public ashtrays, which would unnecessarily increase public spending. It would also still require smokers to approach these ashtrays to dispose their cigarette litter. Another solution to the problem of cigarette litter is to provide smokers with free ashtrays that smokers could carry with them. However, this would require diligent behavior of the smoker to always remember to bring along such an ashtray. Accordingly, there is a need to develop devices and methods that address the problem of cigarette litter, or litter in general.